Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga

Does it come with Windows 8.1 pre-installed?

 

I was wondering about that. I was testing a ThinkPad Twist keyboard and I was getting beeps and was wondering what that was about. What is the purpose of it and can you turn off the beeps?

 

It does come with Windows 8.1 pre-installed. Already a few Windows updates to install.

The keyboard beep happens when you have certain 3-or-more simultaneous key presses. Thinkpad keyboards have 2-key rollover, meaning you can press two keys at the same time and it will still recognize both key presses. The beep is there to tell you that it didn't allow the third keypress. Good for typists that would otherwise continue writing without the feedback of the beep. I haven't checked the bios yet, but in previous thinkpad bios...going into config/alarms/keyboard you can disable the beep. It still won't recognize the third keypress, but at least it won't beep at you.

Battery life from doing medium-level internet activity with brightness at full was almost 6 hours (5:50).

Tomorrow I'm going to try movies and then VMware workstation workload. The more I use it the more I like it. Still very cool to the touch.

 

Ah I see. I am a reasonably fast typist (70-100 wpm). I am hoping I can be quick and accurate with the TP Yoga keyboard. When I heard the beeps on the ThinkPad twist I didn't notice that the keys weren't registering. I should try again some time.

The battery life sounds great. I was afraid it would be below 5 hours. If you can get that kind of battery life on full brightness, then I'm pretty much sold. Right now I use a Surface Pro that gets me through 3:30-4 hours a day doing web browsing and microsoft office. By the end of the day I am usually almost completely drained or almost at the edge. If a TP Yoga can get me at least 6 hours at half brightness, then that would be perfect. I will be getting the i5 version so I think it should go a bit longer.

Any comment on how fast this thing can charge from 0% to full?

 

I'm still confused about the weight.

Lenovo's site says: 3.52 lb
Microsoft Store says: 3.96 lb (SSD version)

So is it going to be closer to 3.5 lb, or closer to 4 lb?

I know SSDs are lighter than HDD, but the Microsoft store weight is an SSD version (?).

 

CONFIRMATION ALERT!
The TPY has been 100% CONFIRMED for release on November 21st! The sales representatives were just informed today, and the TPY will be available next Thursday! I'm ready to get it!

My ideal model:

Intel Core i5 Processor
8GB RAM
1TB HDD w/ 16GB m.SD
Digitizer input (Which has also been confirmed to have an eraser at top and a right click button rather than the Helix's eraser-less stylus!
+ MS Office 2013 Home and Student

Hopefully should be around ~$1500 (given that Australia priced it around $1800, and I deduced their electronics import tax)

 

Microsoft quoted weight includes power adapter.

 

You mean Lenovo representatives??

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

 

Do you think the NFC module would be soldered on motherboard or detachable?

 

Many thanks to share your experience!
The thing i'm worring about is that in SSD version it could be mSATA 1.8" drive, not standard sata 2.5" which makes issue to upgrade drive in future. I bought my VAIO SA2 with HDD and replaced to 128gb Samsung 830 SSD + RAM 4gig for less price than they offer SSD version only and just replaced drive, keep 500gb 2.5" as spare.

 

SSD is 2.5" (7mm height). The bottom case is a bit of a pain to take off (compared to other Thinkpads), but the hard drive is replaceable. The one in my model is a Samsung.

Most new SSDs are 7mm and some come with a spacer to increase the height if put in a 9mm bay (Intel does this). Samsung 830/840/EVO drives are 7mm.

 

many thanks for feedback! much appreciate this comment.
now found comments about Fujitsu T904 and splitting between them

 

Charging from 5% to 100% took an hour and a half. Not too bad...seems "average" to me given the size of the battery.

 

I'm quite surprised that the digitizer would have an eraser. Judging by the pictures it looks like it just has a hard red piece of plastic on the back rather than a pressure sensitive eraser like the one on my Surface Pro pen. Was it the sales rep that you spoke to that confirmed that it would have an eraser?

 

i am pretty sure the digitiser on the Yoga doesn't have an eraser like the old X series ThinkPad. But my machine is coming on Monday, it has already left Beijing on DHL shipment just half a hr ago, so we would know by sure when i get it.

Also, remember the Intel 7260 wireless+bluetooth card (BGN) is 2.4 ghz only.

 

Lead_org, I'm not sure what you mean by the 7260 wireless. The options available for the TP Yoga according to the website is:

Intel® Wireless-N 7260 2 x 2 11 BGN+BT
Intel® Dual Band Wireless-11 AC 7260 2 x 2 +BT

The first one is 2.4ghz without AC. The second option is dual band (5ghz) with AC. Am I wrong here?

 

Yes you are correct the 7260 with the AC is dual band, i must have read something wrong (thanks for the correction).

ARK | Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260

I have wrote a summary of the ThinkPad Yoga and posted on the Lenovo forum.

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/ThinkPad-Yoga-Review/td-p/1314757

 

By the way what difference does it make if something is dual band? When I get the TP Yoga should I opt for the second option?

 

dual band, means you can use both 2.4 ghz and 5 ghz band for MIMO, which increases performance. If you are using the laptop in an area with lot of other people using wifi, then you should get the dual band option, this will give you better performance since most enterprise grade wifi routers support both 2.4 ghz and 5 ghz dual band (even new iPad is dual band wifi).

 

UK here.

I got my unit today i7 with digitiser. Just setting it up now.

Initial impressions are excellent. Good build quality, silent, excellent response from touchscreen, keyboard is super nice.

Let me know if I can answer any questions / take pictures for anyone.

 

Is it screen glossy or matte?

 

If you have a video camera, a breakdown and digitizer tests would be nice.

 

That's great. Here's are some questions:

1. Does the digitizer have an eraser? How accurate is the digitizer, especially in the corners and edges of the screen?
2. What hard drive do you have and how does it perform?
3. Is there a way you can get the actual weight of the laptop? There seem to be a lot of mixed specs floating around

 

That is awesome, I really appreciate your time to answer our questions!
Here is my question: what is the sensitive level of the digitiser (256 or 1024 or more)?
Thanks a lot!!!

 

+1
I was thinking this as well!

 

Just ordered the Thinkpad Yoga here in Norway today

It was listed as in stock, and is listed with a digitizer and a "digital pen".

Norwegian webshop

So model number 20CD0038MN is with a digitizer..

 

Can anyone with the TP Yoga test the stand by time? Perhaps you can leave the TP Yoga in sleep mode over night, then see how much battery % is consumed by the time you wake up. The Surface Pro has terrible standby time and can consume almost 100% of its battery in less than 24 hours.

Also, how fast can the TP Yoga resume from sleep?

 

I'll do a sleep test tonight, if I can remember. The resume from sleep is incredibly fast (on my SSD model). Like, less than 2 seconds.

 

Awesome thanks Jermany. That's good to know. What you can do is take note of the time you put the laptop to sleep along with the battery % then when you wake up take note of how many hours the laptop has been in sleep mode and how much battery was consumed

 

Can someone please confirm that TPY does not have an eraser tip or an eraser button on the pen?
My sony vaio flip does not have an eraser on the tip, but it has an eraser button(along with a right click button)

 

Hi Abhirkmv,

I'm debating between the Thinkpad Yoga and the Sony Valio Flip 13. Being a Vaio Flip user, what's your take on it? Do you see significant pros on the Thinkpad or flaws on the Vaio?

 

Ok so I actually ended up not having to use my laptop today, so I put it to sleep at 3:30 with 100% battery, and just woke it up now, 7.5 hours later, and it's at 94%. Not bad =)

 

So just to do the math, that's 5.2 days ...

 

just another question that came into my mind:

does the yoga have gps build in?
and can someone who has the i7 version (256 gb ssd, 8 gb ram)
confirm tpm and nfc?

 

I will be getting mine today, i7, 256SSD, 8RAM, FHD with digitizer.
The cheapest I found in UK is more computers (official lenovo reseller) - 1319 pounds - http://www.morecomputers.com/extra.aspx?pn=20cd0038uk.
They also sell extended warranty - 3 years on-site for 66 pounds - http://www.morecomputers.com/extra.aspx?pn=04w9819
And dock is 84 pounds - http://www.morecomputers.com/extra.aspx?pn=4x10a06108

I am also getting 2560 x 1440 monitor so will test if yoga/onelink hdmi outs are 1.4 and support this resolution or not.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I've ordered one, and apparently will have it Monday

 

Any idea if this is something upgradeable later, if I get one without it?

 

I doubt it eljer, as it would require a different screen panel most likely

 

IF you get a non-digitizer model, the panel cannot be later upgraded to support digitizer use unfortunately.

 

Thanks for doing the test! According to the website it says that the TPY has a 30 day stand by time, which is clearly an exaggeration. but if you only lost 6% in almost 8 hours, that is definitely good enough! Thanks again

 

OK, if anyone cares, I uploaded 2 videos to Youtube showing the new trackpad clicking and the keyboard lift and lock. I did this because the early hands on videos quickly whip around the lid, and don't really show a good angle of the keyboard lift.

Keyboard, close up. Basically starts to lift/lock at 270 degrees.
Thinkpad Yoga Keyboard Lift (Close Up) - YouTube

Trackpad. Clicks sound different based upon where being clicked.
Thinkpad Yoga Trackpad Motion - YouTube

 

Thanks for that. The trackpad clicking does sound like it would get kind of annoying after awhile. Do you have to press down on the trackpad like that every time you want to click on something? Or does it still respond to light touches for double clicking?

 

It does respond to light touches for everything as well. You can turn that off.

The problem is sometimes you press the trackpad while moving your fingers (cursor) if you're not too careful. I'm getting used to it, but you have to learn to differentiate a light touch and a heavy touch (press) with this trackpad. Be careful when doing multitouch gestures not to press the trackpad down...it's much easier with two fingers on the trackpad.

Reminds me of the Blackberry Torch (I think) that no one liked because they had the screen that moved down/clicked when pressed.

 

Yeah as soon as I saw your video I was thinking about that Blackberry where I had to press hard on the screen and made sure it clicked every time I wanted to type a single letter. I hated that.

 

Damn all my slight concerns have been completely removed by your reviews guys!

The reason im sad is that I can't afford this baby till January :'(

Unfortunately nowhere that is selling offers any kind of finance which I would be able to settle in January. I need some rich friends so I could borrow the money off them till January! Then again hopefully by January the config I want will come out which is

i5-4200U with 8GB RAM, FHD screen w/Digitiser, 500GB/1TB HDD w/16GB Cache SSD.

Seems atm the only options are an i5 with 4GB of ram and a 500GB HDD OR an i7 with 8GB of ram but a 256GB SSD. I don't really want to spend more just for an SSD and an i7 as I don't need either seeing as the 16GB cache ssd included with the harddrives will allow resume and boot times comparable to an SSD but without paying a premium and giving more storage space and I don't need an i7 which will drain the battery a little bit faster as well (I know the SSD will be faster overall but that doesn't bother me)

Planning to use this as a laptop and table tablet for taking notes so won't be worrying about having a moving the tablet around with a spinning drive. Also I can always upgrade to an SSD in a year or so when they are alot cheaper for a 512GB+ size ect.

My question for you guys is: Will the configuration I wanted become available by January because so far its like Lenovo have given the UK 2 very specific builds and neither fit my wants, I would prefer to save a couple of hundred quid by avoiding an SSD and i7!

 

I'm not sure its just the UK that is limited to this choice - here in Scandinavia we have the same 3 specs - and nothing more yet... That said though its still very early days for this model - so fingers crossed that more options appear soonish.

 

Both Amazon and Fry's have the model without digitizer for those of us in the US. I really wish they had other models or Lenovo would release this thing for the US already. I want to throw my 500T up against the wall every time I use it. And hopefully the i5 version can get around 7 hours of battery life. Otherwise, it's back to the drawing board for me.

 

I just went to Fry's and had to have the rep pull one out of inventory to look at. He wasn't sure if they would ever have a demo unit on the floor.

I am convinced this is the best convertible laptop on the market. Much easier to hold in tablet mode than the Yoga 2 Pro and the build quality is far superior to anything else. It actually feels lighter than the 2 Pro even though it is actually heavier and I believe the 12.5 inch screen is the perfect size. I will be waiting for a unit with a digitizer but this is definitely the laptop I have been waiting for.

The screen does flex pretty easily but this seems to be an issue with every ultrabook. The hinges seem much better quality than the 2 pro as well.

For the people who have picked one up already, how are the speakers? I will be watching lots of videos/movies on this and I wasn't able to test it out in store.

 

I am also very curious about the speakers. Ideally, is there anybody who has had a chance to listen to Thinkpad Yoga and Yoga 2 Pro and can comment on any differences in sound quality?

 

I was lucky to borrow my friend's Yoga 2 Pro, and sound quality was amazing (at least for me who came from an old Acer)